Throughout the years, technology has made many leaps and bounds. In the past six decades, we have seen some of the greatest advancements in technology, perhaps most of which in the realm of computers, tablets and phones. While computers, tablets and smartphones have been around for some time, the rate at which they have developed and improved is nothing short of revolutionary.
In terms of computers, the first home computers we more like calculators. In the early 1980s, the first computers started to appear with features such as the common text-based interface. This type of machines used binary code instead of the actual word processing of today’s machines. In 1983, the concept of a graphical user interface (GUI) made its debut, revolutionizing the way computer interfaces were designed. Microsoft released Microsoft Windows to the public, incorporating a GUI to their operating system.
Over the years, computers have gotten progressively better. Apple Inc. made its debut with the release of their Macintosh in 1984 and Intel released the Pentium processor in the early 1990s, both of which revolutionized personal computing power and abilities. In recent years, the continual increases in processor speeds and memory capacity have made computers even more powerful.
Tablets stole the spotlight in late 2007 with the introduction of Apple’s iPad. Since then, the tablet marketplace has only grown with multiple successful models by companies such as Samsung, Microsoft and Apple. The major difference between tablets and computers is convenience. Tablets are more compact and portable than computers and compile much of the same features in a smaller package.
The market for smartphones has been around since 2008 with the release of the first Apple iPhone. Once again revolutionizing the way we interact with our devices, the iPhone was the first smartphone to have an aesthetic design, breakthrough multi-touch capabilities and downloadable applications. Since then, other companies such as Samsung, Nokia, HTC have released their own versions to compete with Apple’s offerings.
Fast-forward to present day, computers, tablets and phones are now more powerful and accessible than ever. We now have incredible on-demand technology in the form of cloud services, breath-taking experiences in virtual/augmented reality and more. It’s hard to believe where the technology of these devices has come in the span of a mere fifty years, and the future looks even brighter.